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5 Steps to declutter your home this Christmas

During Christmas you may have a lot more people in your home than usual and if Santa’s good to you, you might also have to find some more space for those presents! So, before you find yourself drowning in boxes and wrapping paper on Christmas day, take the time to declutter your home in time for the holiday season.

We know that sitting down to declutter your home can seem like a challenge but it’s best to tackle it one room at a time. Here’s our five steps to decluttering your home this Christmas.

Bedrooms

To try and get rid of any unnecessary clutter in your bedroom you can adopt the four-box method. This involves organising every item in your bedroom into four distinct boxes; one box for items you intend to keep; one box for items you intend to chuck out/recycle; one box for items you’ll give away and a box for items you’ll relocate in your home.

Once you’ve got your items organised, it helps make the process of decluttering so much quicker and is an effective way of making sure you just keep things you need in your bedroom.

Living room

After you’ve got your bedrooms tidied you can move onto the living room. The living room may seem like the hardest room to declutter as you spend a lot of time there, but the key is to make sure everything has its place. Designate specific areas for common items like remote controls and, if you’re a keen reader, consider putting up a bookshelf so they’re not taking up space on the coffee table.

If you’ve got kids, the biggest challenge can be keeping their toys from making the room look messy. To help with this try and make storage boxes for different toys and involve your children in making the boxes and decorating so they feel involved. Before you know it, they may even help with tidying their toys away in future!

Kitchen

To help declutter your kitchen in time for Christmas completely empty your drawers onto your kitchen counters and split them into three piles; items you use every day; items you use semi-regularly and items you never or rarely use.

Any utensils you never or rarely use can be placed in storage or chucked out. If you use an item every day, then this can be placed on your counter or if you want to make the most of space consider wall mounting some hooks to place your pots and pans on. Any items you use semi-regularly can be placed in your cupboards and drawers. To make the most of your drawer space you can place dividers – this ensures every inch is used and stops different items getting mixed up.

Bathroom

Now that you’ve got most of the house tidy don’t forget to add the bathroom to your declutter-list. Start here by first emptying the medicine cabinet and binning anything you don’t use anymore. Once you’ve got rid of any unnecessary items you can group together similar types of items in mini baskets which can be neatly stored away in your cabinet or drawers.

Cupboards and wardrobes

For some people their cupboards and wardrobes can feel like a real challenge to try and declutter, especially if in the past you’ve ‘tidied’ the house by shoving everything in these places. For this you can use the four-box method again to decide which items you’re going to keep and when you’ve done this you can keep your cupboards tidy by adding dividers in and labelling each area. This way everything has its place and anything not in its right place can be removed.

As for decluttering a wardrobe, split your clothes into two piles; summer clothes and winter clothes. Since it’s winter, place your summer clothes into a storage box which can be placed in the attic or underneath your bed. Any clothes you’ve not worn in the last 3 months can be placed in a bag which you can then donate to a charity shop!

TOP TIP:

We often get used to items cluttering up a room so much that we stop noticing them. To see your room with fresh eyes, use your phone to film a room in your home and when you look back at the video you’ll notice the clutter more!

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